Meditation Classes and Services

Meditation is an effective way to heighten mental clarity, reduce anxiety and stress, and achieve a tranquil state of quiet inner reflection. A technique derived from the Gandharva musical tradition in India teaches that practitioners can bring the harmony underlying creation to the surface of life where it can be experienced and lived in a practical way.

Think of the mind as a pond of water that, when left undisturbed, presents us with a clear picture of the images reflecting off its surface. It is the mind's nature to reflect what we take in through the senses, but the tension and fatigue of daily life create "waves" on the surface of the mind, causing it to present us with a convoluted image, distorting our perception of reality. Gandharva meditation is a technique that enables us to restore the mind to its natural condition of tranquility so it can yield a truer reflection of reality.

During Gandharva meditation, the silence at the depths of the mind comes to the foreground of our experience while mental activity settles into the background and can even subside altogether. It is a psycho-physiological experience, simultaneously a condition of heightened awareness and deep relaxation. The technique does not involve forced concentration, and it is easy to learn.

This form of meditation is not a mood, nor is it a form of self-hypnosis or autosuggestion in which a person talks himself or herself into feeling a certain way. It is a state of consciousness as tangible and as real as waking, sleeping, or dreaming; a means of experiencing the ground of being that lies at the depths of our consciousness.

One first learns how to establish the proper physiological conditions for the body to reduce its metabolism. Then a technique is used that allows a person to cooperate with the mind's natural tendency to settle into to a quiet state of nondesire. This plateau of inner pleasantness cultures in the individual the state of attunement characterized by a heightened state of coordination between the voluntary and involuntary nervous systems. It is a procedure that is practiced twice a day and takes between 18 to 30 minutes, depending on the development stage of the practitioner.